Members of the Regional Council, Country Chairs representing Country Water Partnerships (CWPs) of South Asia namely; Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Country Coordinators of the respective CWPs attended the meeting. The Regional Chair and Regional Coordinator attended on behalf of the Regional Office while Monika Weber-Fahr, Executive Secretary, GWPO and the Senior Network Officer for South Asia Region were invited as special guests for the meeting.
The key discussion was on the new GWP Strategy where the session Chaired by the Executive Secretary. It was based on ten strategic questions presentation circulated ahead of time among the country representatives. At the beginning of the session, Dr Weber-Fahr introduced the new strategy in the context of global developments. The second element of the discussion was the dialogue on Question #1: “What is your ambition – in your country?” in line with the 10 strategic questions. The ambitions raised were varied based on the country priorities. In addition, the country teams emphasised on some common themes including more inter-agency collaboration, private sector mobilisation, seek more financial resources, although the means to achieve these differ between the countries. After this progressive discussion Dr Weber-Fahr opened the dialogue to all and asked which of the question resonates most with each country based on the country’s perspective, which needs to be seen resolved and what would be the approach to respond to it. The country teams picked up the most relevant questions that reflect their current challenges.
Afterwards, the meeting was lined up with regular agenda items that are common to the Regional Council meetings which includes Country Coordinators’ presenting the country level activity progresses with a brief overview on the 2019 programme plans, Regional Coordinator giving a progress update on overall regional programming, financial progress and budget.
Year 2018 is another memorable year for GWP SAS as we are bidding farewell to Dr Lam Dorji who served as the Regional Chair from 2016-2019 and welcoming the new Regional Chair. Dr Dorji announced the nomination of upcoming Chair, Dr Khondaker Azharul Haq the current President BWP on effect from 1 January 2019. This announcement was endorsed by the RC immediately. After deciding upon the location for the next RC meeting, which is in Bhutan the 24th RC meeting was concluded with the closing remarks of the Regional Chair and Vote of Thanks made by Sri Lanka Water Partnership.